


Land After Time

by 27dragons, tisfan



Series: Sarcasm Prompts [13]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Dinosaurs, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Lives, M/M, Time Shenanigans, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 15:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17328005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/27dragons/pseuds/27dragons, https://archiveofourown.org/users/tisfan/pseuds/tisfan
Summary: 36 Winteriron (feignedsobriquet) (flightof icarus)“If history repeats itself, I am so getting a dinosaur.” & Tony w/ tech issues





	Land After Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Flight_Of_Icarus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flight_Of_Icarus/gifts), [nomdeplumeria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nomdeplumeria/gifts).



“-- not the least of which is that we’re usin’ Doom’s time machine to get out of this mess,” Bucky finished his rant just as the doors opened. Well, it wasn’t New York City, but there was really no way to tell where, or more importantly, _when_ they were. He stepped out, hesitantly, gun at the ready for any hostile locals, nosy monsters, or hungry animals. “Looks clear.”

It was night, which just made everything look weird anyway. Tony hesitated in the doorway, trying to find something familiar to focus on, until Jane impatiently pushed him out ahead of her. “I need to be able to see the whole sky, Tony,” she chided. She didn’t bother looking at the plant life, instead fixing her gaze on the heavens.

Bucky was staring fixedly into the darkness, shoulders tense. Tony quashed the urge to ask whether he was all right. Of course he wasn’t all right. None of them were, and they weren’t going to _be_ all right until they got home.

Something rustled in the bushes and Bucky swung his gun around. Jane didn’t seem to notice; her lips were moving as she silently calculated their point in time by way of the stars’ position. The bushes rustled again. “If history repeats itself, I am _so_ getting a dinosaur,” Tony said. “I’ll name it--”

“Rex?” Jane suggested.

Tony wrinkled his nose at her. “No, that’s boring and terrible, stop that. Leave puns to the professionals.”

“Steve,” Bucky said. Tony whirled around, because Cap had not been with them at all. “You could name your dinosaur Steve.”

Jane doubled over, laughing at that.

“What? _Steve…_ it’s a nice name. I like Steve,” Bucky said. “I wouldn’t be afraid of a dinosaur if its name was Steve.”

“I could always call it James,” Tony shot back, though he suspected his grin was a little weak. It was his fault they’d gotten lost in the timestream, in the first place.

“Oh, good news,” Jane said, squinting up at the sky. “The left dial definitely controls the planetary spin. We’re pretty much exactly _where_ we need to be. So, don’t touch that.”

“And the bad news?” Bucky asked, because there was always bad news. There was another rustle in the bushes and--

“Christ, what _is_ that?” Bucky staggered backward.

Tony backed up a little to stay behind Bucky, because Bucky was armed and he wasn’t. He couldn’t help leaning sideways a bit, however, to look.

The thing that pushed out of the trees at them wasn’t a dinosaur, or a lion, or even a man. It was some sort of horse-sized… robot. With liquid silver limbs and an array of sensors that Tony was itching to get his hands on.

“Oh my god, that’s beautiful,” Tony murmured.

“That’s the bad news,” Jane said, moving away quickly. The robot turned the patch of ground near where she had been standing into ashes. “We’re about three thousand years ahead of our own time, can we _go now_?”

“Wait, can’t we just... look around a little?” There were no seams at all on the robot’s body, but they still glistened in the moonlight like metal. How did that even work? And that sensor array on its -- might as well call it a head -- was unlike anything Tony had ever seen. What--

“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jane said firmly. She grabbed Tony’s shirt and tried to tug him back into the time machine.

The bot took another few steps, its legs perfectly balanced, not like the clunky iron legions, but fluid and graceful. It moved toward them, the head spinning and shooting another beam into the darkness, igniting, for just a moment, something that looked like a freaking two foot _cockroach_ before the beam turned it to dust.

Which would have been disgusting enough, except there were apparently more of them, and fuck-- did that one have a tiny _machine gun_ mounted on its back? Bucky shoved Tony behind him more firmly and returned fire at the apparently aggressive bugs.

“Situation is _extremely_ hostile,” Bucky reported.

“No shit,” Jane exclaimed.

“Right, okay, we’re going, we’re going.” Tony backed all the way into the time machine, scooting to the side to make room for Bucky’s retreat. Jane was already adjusting the controls.

The ‘bot engaged with the bugs, firing faster than Tony count track, then -- Tony couldn’t even tell where the voice or speaker system was -- “Report, SCOUT,” and that voice…

 _That_ voice…

“Confirmation of expected anomaly, J,” the bot, apparently SCOUT, said. “Opening dialog.”

“How are they speaking _English?_ ” Jane whispered.

The bot took a step back and a beam of golden light shot out from its head, coalescing into a familiar orange ball of code and hard light. “Good to see you again, sir,” JARVIS said. “We’ve been waiting a long time.”

 


End file.
